New Jersey State (Division of State Police) and New Jersey State Trooper Captains Association

In P.E.R.C. No. 2012-71, the Commission affirmed a Hearing Officer’s recommendation that a majority of the State Police captains are not managerial executives and are eligible for inclusion in a collective negotiations unit. Managerial executives are excluded from the definition of public employees eligible for inclusion in collective negotiations units. Before 2010, the managerial executive exclusion was the same for all public employees — persons who formulate management policies and practices, and persons who are charged with the responsibility of directing the effectuation of such management policies and practices. In 2010, the Legislature amended the definition of managerial executives for employees of the Executive Branch of the State of New Jersey in two ways. The definition no longer includes employees who simply direct the effectuation of management polices and practices. In addition, the new definition specifies that managerial executives shall include only personnel at or above the level of assistant commissioner.

In this decision, the Commission made clear that the revised definition requires a determination that a managerial executive in the Executive Branch must formulate policy and be at or above the level of assistant commissioner, i.e. employees who do not formulate policy are not managerial executives even if they are at or above the level of assistant commissioner. The Commission also found that assistant commissioners are at the third level of a State department and that most State Police captains are at least the fourth level and therefore can be included in a collective negotiationis unit.